"THREE GREAT THINGS!"
Written and preached by David P. Nolte
NUMBERS 13:25-4:4
They had been out of Egypt for more than two years. God's hand in providing
for them, punishing their disobedience, and protecting them from their
enemies had been evidenced among them. They had seen the Red Sea part to
let them pass; they had seen bitter water turned potable at Marah, they
had been given manna to eat, they had received water from the Rock at Rephidim.
And by the time of our text they should have been pretty well convinced
of Moses' leadership and of God's fidelity. God had a definite agenda to
fulfill. He had a precise plan to carry out. He was now ready to take them
into the Promised Land. Before doing that, however, God told Moses to send
12 spies into the land to see what the land was like, to check out its
fruit, its people and cities. What we see in this text are three great
things in reference to this event: a Great Opportunity which came through
the Promise of God, a Great Opposition seen in the pessimism of the ten,
and a Great Optimism seen in the positive trust of the two. It reminds
me of the story of a young boy who was given an opportunity. The little
country schoolhouse where he went to school was heated by a pot-bellied
coal stove. The little boy had the job of coming to school early each day
to start the fire and warm the room before his teacher and his classmates
arrived. It was his responsibility and his opportunity to prove his trustworthiness.
That's what God had expected from the Israelites; take the opportunity
He gave them and be trustworthy in regard to it! Let's look back to the
text:
THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY: THE
PROMISE OF GOD: V2:
Notice carefully that God said that it was "the land of Canaan, which I
am going to give to the sons of Israel!" That was his promise repeated
once again. Over 500 years before that he'd made the promise to Abraham.
God had not reneged or forgotten His promise.
God's promise is His certificate of authenticity, His guarantee, His commitment,
His self-imposed obligation.
He makes no promises He does not intend to keep.
He makes no promises He will ever change His mind about keeping.
He makes no promises He will ever forget about.
He makes no promises He will be unable to keep.
God's promise ought to be effective in our lives; what will it do?
It reveals His will. When He promises, He says, "I will this for you!"
It assures us of His blessing! All His promises are for our benefit and
good!
It relieves us of worry and anxiety. Knowing He will not go back on His
word gives us peace.
It gives us courage and optimism. God's promise is a rock and foundation
to us when all of life falls apart.
Though never forgotten or broken, sometimes God's promise is obscured:
We see the delay and count it denial. Delay is not denial.
We see the problems and lose sight of the promise. Problems are not the
last word, God's promise is.
We see the circumstances and become panic stricken. God never puts us under
the circumstances, but takes us through them.
As Israel had been given a great opportunity in God's promise, so the little
boy had been given an opportunity to take care of the stove in the school
house. But a tragic circumstance occurred. One morning the teacher and
other students arrived to find the schoolhouse engulfed in flames. They
dragged the unconscious little boy out of the flaming building more dead
than alive. He had major burns over the lower half of his body and was
taken to the nearby county hospital. From his bed the dreadfully burned,
semi-conscious little boy faintly heard the doctor talking to his mother.
The doctor said the boy would surely die since the fire had devastated
the lower half of his body. But the brave boy didn't want to die. He made
up his mind that he would survive. Somehow, to the amazement of the physician,
he did survive. When the mortal danger was past, he again heard the doctor
and his mother speaking quietly. The mother was told that he was doomed
to a lifetime with no use at all of his lower limbs. What a pessimistic
prognosis! Just like some of the spies who came back with their report.
Look at the text:
THE GREAT OPPOSITION: THE PESSIMISM
OF THE TEN: VV31-33:
There was no excuse for such hopelessness. They had not only seen the history
of God's protection, but had seen the land. It was, by their own admission,
a great land.
Why were they so pessimistic and negative?
They looked at the size of enemy rather than the sufficiency of God, their
ally.
They looked at their own smallness rather than the amplitude of God.
They looked at the enormity of the task rather than the magnitude of God's
promise.
They thought it depended solely on them to take the land rather than on
God to give it as He had promised.
There are still people who adopt that same negative, pessimistic, faultfinding
attitude. But notice some significant truths:
A negative, pessimistic, complaining attitude is disobedient, dishonoring
and displeasing to the Lord. Listen to His response to perpetual grumbling: Numbers
11:1 "Now the people became like those who complain of adversity
in the hearing of the Lord; and when the Lord heard it, His anger was kindled,
and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts
of the camp."
Pessimists always miss what they have while murmuring about what they don't
have; they miss what is good and right while focusing on what is bad and
wrong.
Pessimism and negativism ruins our testimony, destroys relationships and
deprives us of the joy of living.
Negative grumblers infect the entire congregation with a spirit of discouragement
and a sense of hopelessness.
Now, how can you know if you have developed a pessimistic, negative and
complaining attitude? Sometimes we have a blind spot and don't perceive
it in ourselves. Check this out:
If you always find what is wrong and seldom see what is right, you have
a negative attitude.
If you are unhappy and dissatisfied because things aren't done your way,
your attitude is negative.
If you constantly dislike this and dislike that, your attitude is negative.
If you pout and sulk about decisions or procedures you don't approve of,
you have a negative attitude.
Things looked negative to the pessimists and they opposed taking the land.
Well, even though things looked pretty negative, the little boy had a positive
attitude. He made up his mind. He would walk in spite of the doctor's prognosis.
But unfortunately from the waist down, he had no motor ability. His thin
legs just dangled there, all but lifeless. Ultimately he was released from
the hospital. Every day his mother would massage his little legs, but there
was no feeling, no control, nothing. Yet his determination that he would
walk was as strong as ever. One day his mother wheeled him out into the
yard to get some fresh air. This day, instead of sitting there, he threw
himself from the chair. He pulled himself across the grass, dragging his
legs behind him. He worked his way to the picket fence. With great effort,
he raised himself up on the fence. Then, stake by stake, he began dragging
himself along, resolved that he would walk. He started to do this every
day until he wore a smooth path all around the yard beside the fence. There
was nothing he wanted more than to develop life in those legs. He was determined,
hopeful, optimistic. Just like Joshua and Caleb who stood against the majority
to bring their confident report. Look back to the text:
THE GREAT OPTIMISM: THE POSITIVE TRUST OF THE TWO: V30:
These were the "Can-Do Brothers!" They knew that since God Can-Do, they
could say, "We Can-Do!"
They may have reasoned like this:
"We may not be able to take the land by ourselves, but we don't have to!
God will give it to us!"
"We may look like grasshoppers to the inhabitants of the land, but, so
what? They look like grasshoppers to God!"
"We may be the minority report, but if we are on God's side, we represent
the majority!"
Think of the positive results of optimism:
It shows us the silver lining in every cloud, the half-full rather than
the half-empty part of the cup.
It enables us to see that a morning of joy always follows a night of weeping.
It assures us that what God has promised, He is also able to deliver.
It gives us courage to face overwhelming odds knowing that if God is for
us nobody can be against us.
I'm not talking about phony euphoria; real optimism is not merely denying
the hard realities of life; real optimism is that confident assurance that
when we are in God's will, walking God's way, claiming God's promises,
protected by God's presence and enabled by God's power, nothing can stop
us and nothing can defeat us.
The little boy was an inveterate optimist. Ultimately through his daily
massages, his persistence and determination, he did develop the ability
to stand up, then to walk haltingly, then to walk by himself and then to
run. He began to walk to school, then to run to school, to run for the
sheer joy of running. Later in college he made the track team. Still later
in Madison Square Garden this young man who was not expected to survive,
who would surely never walk, who could never hope to run -- this determined
young man, Glenn Cunningham, ran the world's fastest mile! All the negatives
melted away before his optimism and determination. Opportunity that would
have passed by a lesser individual became reality in Cunningham's life.
We may never run the world's fastest mile, but we can claim God's promises
and seize the opportunities He grants us. We have a choice: either pessimism
or positivism, doubt or faith, loss or gain. Faith is positive, faith is
confident, faith is obedient, faith believes God more than circumstances,
critics, or our own negative inclinations. When we have faith, all God's
promises are ours. God sets a great opportunity before each of us. For
some it is an opportunity to be saved; for some it is an opportunity to
heal a broken relationship; for all of us it is an opportunity to serve
Him sacrificially and to obey Him faithfully. And for all of us the demand
is faith to go where He opens the way and to follow where He leads. Would
you be willing to follow Him by faith? Would you be willing to confess
faith in Him this morning? If so, come as we sing our hymn.
Burt Dubin, in Chicken Soup For The Soul, Canfield & Hansen, Health
Communications, Inc. Deerfield Beach, Fla.